You know when you're a kid and you're told that everything will be great when you grow up, that life will be perfect? You grow up thinking that you're going to get married, have kids and live happily ever after, right? Wrong. Life is cruel and doesn't obey anyone, nor does it sympathize. One moment you could be the happiest you've ever been - and the next instant it could be gone…forever.

I grew up in a loving house hold, my parents were always supportive, we weren't poor…everyone was so happy. Then as if things couldn't get any better I received my letter of acceptance to Hogwarts. I was so happy and proud, life couldn't be sweeter. If only I had known then what I do now, if only I had seen into the future and seen all the pain that I would have to endure due to this magical world.

"It is better to have love and lost than to have never loved at all," that's how the saying goes, right? Whoever wrote that is seriously deranged.

I had grown up this summer, not because I wanted to, but because I had to. I remember coming home from school on the first day of summer vacation this year, life was so great. I had two wonderful best friends, a boyfriend (who was incidentally one of my best friends), another successful year at Hogwarts completed under my belt and I was all set to become head girl the following year…this year. To top it all off, I was going home to my loving parents.

In one day this was taken from me, all of it. In one day my life was destroyed. I remember it so clearly, God, how could I forget? The screaming, the looks on my parents faces as they fell to the ground, so lifeless and still. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have not seen this coming? It was all my fault of course, they were dead and it was all my fault.

Not that I deserve any pity, because I don't. I should have done something, I should have stopped him from killing my parents. Their faces still haunt my dreams, I wake up every night to the sound of their screams echoing in my head. Still I deserve no pity, because it's all my fault.

The night they were murdered, they had been out looking for me. We had just had a big fight over something I can't even remember, not that it matters now. I had run away, I had been stupid and left them alone, and they had taken advantage of that, he had taken advantage of it. He knew that I, Hermione Granger was close to the ever-famous Harry Potter, he knew where to strike me to make it hurt the most, straight through the heart.

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"Hermione!" Harry Potter had trying to get her attention for the last ten minutes. He knew she was experiencing a lot of pain right now, it hurt him so much to see her like this.

She finally snapped out if it and stared blankly at him.

"It's time for us to head to the prefects meeting, remember?"

She just nodded her head in response, slowly getting up and following Harry to the back of the train.

He wished he could do something for her, anything, he would do anything for her. After the incident with her parents Harry tried his hardest to comfort her, but he had failed her. Every day she seemed more and more out of it and everyday she looked worse. She had stopped eating and that had made her tiny five foot four inch frame seem as if she were all bones. She looked like hell, her eyes always had a glossed-over look, he has sure she hadn't brushed her hair in weeks, not to mention her sickly pale skin, and the huge purple circles under her eyes.

Harry didn't see how she was going to carry on as the head girl, he couldn't believe after all that she had been through they had still given her this added stress. But maybe the duties would enable her to function again, to look alive.

Looking across the room Harry spotted Ron who smiled sadly back at Harry before quickly turning his attention towards Hermione. He got out of his seat and gave her a big hug, not that she knew that, she was in her own world, they didn't know how to get through to her anymore.

"Why don't you two just put the mudblood out of her misery and do us all a favor?" Harry had never felt more angry in his life. How could it be that Malfoy, out of every boy in Hogwarts had ended up as head boy?

"Go fuck Crabbe or Goyle, Malfoy, everyone knows you want to, you might as well come out," said Ron.

"Really Weasley, I expected better…no wait, no I didn't," he snorted loudly "Perhaps someone is a tad bit cranky from not getting any lately? What, just because the girl is devoid of any emotions is stopping you? Wouldn't stop me…" Draco slowly lifted his finger and ran it down Hermione's arm.

Both boys had fire in their eyes, their jaws clenched tightly and their hands balled up in fists. Ron made the first move and dove towards an expecting Malfoy. He managed to step to the side just as Ron was making his move. Laughing, Draco turned and sat back down, smirking like he had just won a prize.

"Touch her again and you're dead, Malfoy!!" Ron spat out angrily, again pouncing at Draco, this time though, he wasn't prepared. Just as Ron was getting ready to make Malfoy sorry he was ever born he heard a whisper.

"Enough." She had said quietly. For the first time in two months Hermione had spoken. Ron forgot all about what Malfoy had done, he was just so glad to know that she finally said something, finally reacted to something. It gave him a little bit of hope.